A Historical Look at Old Shanghai Architecture

To say the architecture of modern Shanghai is extraordinary would be an understatement. When the Los Angeles Times reported on a new string of modern architectural projects ranging from sharply modern residences to controversial yet confidently sleek looking building plans in the city of Pasadena in 2006, it concluded the city was headed towards an aesthetical identity crisis with respect to its new architectural plans. With Pasadena's once sleepy and preservation-conscious roots of Spanish Revival structures making room for the high profile modern architectural plans of Michael Maltzan and Thom Mayne, the city would be headed towards what the newspaper regarded as an architectural laboratory rival to that of Shanghai. As a treaty-port city once dominated by foreign concessions and foreign influences, Shanghai was never unfamiliar with the concept of an identity crisis; and thus the historical architecture of old Shanghai was evidence why. Today, the modern skyline of Shanghai is testament to the aesthetical eclecticism it had and continues to have. However, one must survey the past in order to understand how this aesthetically eclectic architecture came to be.

During the 1840s, treaty-port Shanghai developed into one of the largest cities in the world. With its International and French Settlements founded on the principle of extraterritoriality, Shanghai became, as Jon Huebner notes, "The main outpost of Western enterprise in China and the principal point through which the institutions and practices of Western capitalism were transplanted." These foreign concessions not only made a significant impact to the immediate economy of Shanghai, but it also influenced the physical makeup of the city and its public urban space - the architecture. Some of the foreign architecture which was prevalent in the pre-WWII era was demolished following Shanghai's unification of a single municipality in 1945, however, much of the architecture, although grim, neglect, and needing a new coat of paint, remains intact following the post-Mao period. This allows the architectural legacy and spirit of old Shanghai to continue to be experienced, observed, and studied throughout the ensuing decades.

Several sources depict the architecture of old Shanghai - from roughly the 1860s through the 1940s - in various ways. The most common amongst these depictions is the idea of a duality between the East and the West. Much of the significant structures of Shanghai during this period attained a duality of attributes suggesting both international as well as domestic influences. One such source portraying this idea is the biography of Chinese architect I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism. Michael Cannell refers to the architecture of Shanghai the architecture of dualities. He notes in his text, "An able designer can very well hold on to basic traditional features - which he has found are still alive - without sacrificing a progressive conception of design." The premise that holding on to traditional architectural elements while adding progressive new structural changes to a building is apparent in much of the architectural styles in Shanghai.

The architectural dualities which Cannell renders in his text are a result of what he calls, "day-to-day paradoxes" between Western culture and Chinese culture. I.M. Pei, one of the most popular and reputable modernist architects in the world, owns much of his influence to these "day-to-day paradoxes." As a child of American popular culture as well as Chinese traditional values, Cannell states in his biographical text as an example, "Chinese adoration of the Cadillac did not interfere with devotion to Confucian virtues [or the idea of] Bing Crosby being cohabited with Buddha." Similar to these "day-to-day paradoxes" in Chinese culture, such as I.M. Pei's childhood, Cannell argues the architecture - both interior and exterior - followed the same mold by being expressed in this duality:

"This comfortable duality expressed itself in Shanghai homes, many of which had
Western-style entries for foreigners and separate entries with traditional upturned roofs
and windows for Chinese. From the interior, the redbrick home of Sun Yat-Sen, the
meeting place of republican revolutionaries, contained American Dickens volumes
beside traditional Chinese furniture. Biographies of Bismarck and Lincoln shared a shelf
with ancient Chinese texts."

By juxtaposing the idea of a duality represented in Chinese culture and the idea of a duality represented in Shanghai architecture, Cannell concludes this type of Chinese culture heavily influenced the architecture of Shanghai. Shanghai is a city of "day-to-day paradoxes," which is not only evident in culture and society, but also the architecture and surrounding public spaces.

In a somewhat similar approach, Peter Rowe and Seng Kuan - although emphasizing the idea of borrowing rather than duality - depict the architecture of Shanghai as one continuously striving towards modernization. To Rowe and Kuan, the first steps to Shanghai's architectural modernization began in the mid nineteenth century with the Self-Strengthening Movement - reforms aimed at modernizing and liberalizing Chinese institutions toward the end of the Qing Dynasty. Sponsored by Li Hongzhang, the Jiangnan (Kiangnan) Arsenal in Shanghai of 1865 combined a Western-style layout of production facilities and building forms with tiled roofs, wooden decorative work, and other construction details. These facilities, mostly military and industrial establishments, were asked to borrow from Western motifs and stylings. Rowe states, "This architectural convergence of Western & Chinese elements was understandable, for at the time it was widely believed, that foreign technology could be borrowed and then absorbed into a Chinese scheme of things without too much fuss." Borrowing architectural elements from the West during the Self-Strengthening Movement were the first steps toward modernization in Shanghai.

Aside from borrowing architectural elements, Rowe and Kuan thoroughly discuss the rise of architecture as an academic discipline and the rise of architectural firms in Shanghai. Whereas the decades from the 1860s through the 1910s the architects were predominately foreigners from Britain, America, and France, Chinese architectural studies grew heavily in the 1920s with more Chinese studying architecture overseas than ever before. By 1935, 35 of 55 Society of Chinese Architects were overseas-trained and including foreign-based firms such as the British Palmer & Turner, more than fifty architectural firms could be found in Shanghai during the 1930s - a threefold increase from two decades earlier. Architecture in Shanghai from about 1920 through the 1930s was a growing and fashionable trend as the increasingly overseas-trained Chinese architects and their accommodating architectural firms serve as evidence.

Shanghai's architecture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries may also be depicted as one of British colonial power and American industrial power. When strolling along the Bund, one can often compare the much of the architecture of Shanghai with the architecture of Great Britain. Likewise, one can also compare certain modern art-deco structures in relation to New York. In his text Shanghai Modern, Leo Ou-fan Lee constructs two arguments regarding the architecture of Shanghai. First, Lee states Shanghai's public structures and spaces represent British colonial power. Lee presents two such examples with The Customs House and The Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank in perfectly representing British colonial power. One of these structures, The Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank on the Bund, maintained two bronze lion statues guarding the front entrance of the building. Lee notes, regarding these bronze embellishments, "The Reference to capitalist desire in this often reported of 'petting the lions' is obvious: As the designated emblem of the British Empire, the bronze lions were rubbed a bright gold - symbolizing the accumulated wealth of British imperialism - and the lucky talisman was but another inducement to native greed." The second structure, The Custom House also on the Bund, holds a Doric-style entrance which took inspiration from the Parthenon in Athens while the replica "Big Ben" clock atop this neo-classical building added, as Lee states, "A final touch to this landscape of colonial economic power." Much of the architectural structures examined by Lee in his brief architectural survey of Shanghai suggest the British built architecture is symbolic of the colonial power they once achieved.

The second argument formed by Leo Ou-fan Lee surmises that Shanghai's public structures and spaces represent American industrial power. By the 1930s, British colonial power is replaced with American industrial power with architectural emphasis on the modern Art Deco style. The Art Deco style in Shanghai of the 1930s marked the decline of British colonialism and the rise of American industrialism. The neo-classicism of British imperial power was replaced with the spirit of American capitalism. As a result, new development techniques in America allowed some of the taller structures in Shanghai to be built during this period. Several examples of these modern 1930s structures include the 24-story Park Hotel, the 12-story Sassoon House, and the 22-storey building of the Joint Savings Society. With these new architectural styles came a new urban lifestyle in which Lee describes, "The image of men and women living in a glittering world of fashionable clothes & fancy furniture was to Chinese eyes, very much part of its exotic allure." However, Art Deco architecture also meant alienation. In his text, Lee notes a source from a Chinese man stating his displeasure with the attitudes associated with these modern Western places:
"These places have no deep relationship to us Chinese…and besides, the
upper atmosphere in these Western hotels is very solemn, every move
& gesture seems completely regulated. So if you don't know Western
etiquette, even if you have enough money to make a fool of yourself, it's
not worthwhile"

Both the British and American stages of architecture in Shanghai represented some form of domination and power.
The more thoroughly researched of sources, however, is Jon Huebner's study, The Architecture on the Shanghai Bund. Huebner chronicles nearly every structure on the Bund from North (building number thirty-three) to South (building number one). Stating the Bund was the architectural showcase and centerpiece of treaty-port China, Huebner poses a fundamental question to the reader: Is the representation of the Bund the mere transplantation of foreign architectural forms and styles to China or merely a cosmopolitan style rooted in a specific time and place? Surmising that the architecture of the bund was the product of a specific time and place, Huebner argues two key points. Huebner notes that successful modern architecture was dependent upon the study of the past for inspiration, the creative ability to express the beauty of the past in modern ways, as well as good proportion, mass, and form for its effects - this inspiration being the West. Secondly, Huebner notes that firms which incorporated both Chinese-inspired decorative elements and Western structural elements - such as Palmer & Turner - allowed the Bund to epitomize a distinctive style of its own time and place; the distinctive style known as "Shanghai Style."
The Bund, a strip area alongside the Whangpu River, contained much notable architecture. Aside from the famous Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank and its neighboring Custom House (with the Big Ching clock), Huebner's Architecture on the Shanghai Bund depicts the 1922 Modern Renaissance building of the Jardine, Matheson & Company, the 1916 building designed by Palmer & Turner - which integrated Japanese granite - of The Yangtze Insurance Association building, and the famous 1929 triangular-roofed building known as the famous Sassoon House - whose upper floors were dedicated to the equally famous Cathay Hotel. Shanghai's Bund was truly the architectural showcase & centerpiece of treaty-port China.
Similar to the arguments of Lee, Rowe, Cannell, and Huebner, Hanchao Lu presents the architecture of Shanghai during the 1920s and 1930s as one which not only borrowed and imitated Western styles, but also encompassed a type of duality between Chinese-Japanese as well as Chinese-Islamic styles. In his text, Beyond the Neon Lights, Lu states, "Imitations of European architectural styles ranged from Roman classic, baroque, and Renaissance to modern and contemporary designs. The urban landscape was further embellished by Japanese-style structures and even by a few Islamic-style buildings." Many of these Western styles were modified and integrated with the traditional Chinese style, making the architecture of old Shanghai aesthetically eclectic.

The architecture of old Shanghai, however, does not always imply all things modern, grand, and Western. After acknowledging the modern Western aspects of dominating commercial architecture in old Shanghai, Lu chronicles other Shanghai architectures - the housing. Although the stylish architecture of the Bund and the famous Nanking Road served as a commercial symbol for all things modern, grand, and Western, Shanghai was also home to an overwhelming majority of residences, some whose residential architectures were not as aesthetically pleasing to the eye. In Beyond the Neon Lights, Lu depicts the world of the alleyway homes, the shantytown dweller, and the Western housing. Organized into three categories - Western-style, alleyway, and shanties - Shanghai housing became representative of one's wealth and pocketbook.

The most exclusive of the three, the Western-style housing (yangfang) was the more luxurious type of housing in Shanghai. Much like the childhood French Concession home of Chinese architect I.M. Pei, whose family lived like Chinese gentry, the yangfang homes were, "Truly extravagant even by Western standards of the time, and, like extravagant homes elsewhere in the world, they often served as proud symbols of the city." The Western-style residential architectures often portrayed the wealth owned by its inhabitant.

The second category of housing, the alleyway house (lilong), was home to the majority of Shanghainese because of its abundance and function in the city. Described by Lu as, "A row house that combined both European and Chinese features [which was] usually situated within a gated compound," the lilong was differentiated between "new-style" and "old-style." The alleyway housing was the most common type of residence in old Shanghai and could somewhat be compared to apartment housing of modern urban cities.

Finally, the third category of housing by Lu, the shanty dwellings of Shanghai, was consisted of bungalow-type single story houses (pingfang) and straw shacks. Designated generally for the poor, this type of housing often lacked running water and consistent electricity. Usually comprised of only a single room, the shanty dwellings of old Shanghai served as yet another symbol for old Shanghainese architecture - the poor working class.

Apart from Lu's housing studies, Shanghai architecture has not always been surveyed as one of Western and Chinese duality, the idea of borrowing, or the idea of architecture as colonial and industrial power. In a stark difference, All About Shanghai by H.J. Lethbridge, is a 1930's guidebook which presents a more reader and tourist friendly approach to the architecture of Shanghai. The guidebook, which is intended for the, "Traveler, tourist, or visitor," is supposed to be used as, "Reference for the newcomer, suggesting where to promenade, what to look at, where to shop, and what entertainments, conventional or unconventional, where available to the pleasure-seeker, diner-out, or nocturnal wanderer." It is, therefore, an extremely watered down guide to conform to the more unconscious foreign traveler seeking a short-term stay in Shanghai. Unlike Lee's argument (Shanghai Bank building's bronze lions as British Colonial Power), All About Shanghai states, "Their [the bronze lion statues] paws have been polished by the caresses of millions of Chinese passers, who derive strength from this contact with the kings of beasts. There is also a belief among the Chinese that gold was accidentally used in the casting of the figures." Although the guidebook recognizes that much of the buildings have become grim, lusterless, and in need of a coat of paint, it attempts to make discovering the spirit of old Shanghai for the amateur tourist more feasible; and therefore excludes any bold, controversial, and analytic arguments against the architecture of old Shanghai and it's Western influences.
Old Shanghai architecture has also been depicted in more dramatic fashions, in particular fiction and non-fiction film. For example, Poon Man-Kit's 1996 Shanghai Grand showcases the film's credits with the foreign dominated skyline of the Bund as its backdrop. Shanghai Grand, yet another typical organized crime fiction about 1930s underworld Shanghai, attempted to give the viewer a sense of "otherness" or foreign domination in choosing to depict the more grandeur of buildings, most in which were Western commercial architectures such as the Bund.

The second film, Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987), offers more justice to the architecture of old Shanghai than Shanghai Grand. In showing not only the famous Bund and other Western commercial centers in Shanghai, Empire of the Sun also showcased the Western-style housing (yangfang) in the International Settlement. Home to Jim Graham, who was separated by his upper-class British colonial parents when the Japanese occupation swept through Shanghai during WWII, the International Settlement and its Western housing sectors were seen as clean, organized neighborhoods - much different from the Chinese counterparts of the city. Glimpses of the Chinese City, Chinese residences such as the shanties, as well as the exclusive high end Western residences of the foreign concessions attempt to portray Shanghai as a city of eclecticism with regards to its architectural past.

To merely say that the architecture of Shanghai was often attributed to an identity crisis would be incorrect. Thanks to the history of old Shanghai and the myriad of foreign influences, Shanghai today has become an architectural laboratory - a term which the city of Pasadena does not want to be associated with. However, unlike Pasadena, Shanghai accepts this term. With the increase in post-modern architectures - eyesores or otherwise - such as The Shanghai Grand Theatre, The Shanghai Museum, and an innumerable amount of tall skyscrapers and other notably grand projects, Shanghai has put itself in the forefront of architecture, in both industry as well as academics. It is this aesthetical eclecticism, which began in the 1860s in old Shanghai, which has allowed Shanghai to prosper as a leading architectural city today.